Longevity of the progressives // dream tricks
As many people my age have experienced, I grew up with a general idea of morality but didn't become aware of how by circumstance people of certain physical traits became very powerful and those without became very impoverished. And about how while only very few can be extremely powerful, to share traits with those in power correlates highly with coming across significantly higher levels of success than others who don't. Also guns. You would think that being privy to this information would give you reason to teach others and of course this happens between friends. As social circles form I have seen though that it has become taboo to be friends with people who would disagree on the prevalence of systemic injustices. Even though the vast majority of people championing this knowledge grew up themselves without it. And when it comes to progressive media, it appears to entirely cater to those who already agree, scoffing and condescending others and then further mocking them for being hurt. I am not particularly interested in making a case now about the morality of running a movement in this way, but am focused rather on the potential for it's longevity. The premise that nobody is born a progressive and the progressive movement shifts nobody is not the case I'm making either. Rather, I see it as a movement that instead of taking the time to flesh out its own ideas and convey them empathetically. It resorts to divisive and catty methods almost to the point of selling its ideas through over-demonizing those who disagree. As I said before progressive media has made it loud and clear that it is for progressives, not an educational tool for those coming to these topics for the first time. Along with this though, I don't know if a movement run in this way has the power to even hold onto it's own members. I have been fortunate to be educated in a way that allowed me to learn without judgement so I can firmly hold beliefs based on information that progressives know is shocking when first presented with, as they all had that experience at least about the systemic biases they hadn't experienced or seen firsthand. I worry for those who have brought into the movement through the mocking of All Lives Matter, or Donald Trump and his supporters if there is anything really keeping these new progressives a part of the movement. Or connecting them with it deeply enough that they will feel driven to take action. Also it's arrogant to think other people will never be able to believe what you do. You are just too lazy to empathize and learn how to effectively convey information. ~~~ Oh and the guns. I had just watched a video clip from The David Pakmanshow where within the segment one of the producers said that the arguments being made against gun control would mean nothing to a pro-gun advocate, and then they went on to scoff at the people disagreeing with them. And I just thought that I couldn't imagine any anti-gun person feeling empowered to take action based on this type of content and of course let alone any pro-gun person. (the segment was about a stabbing in which nobody died) ~~ Ok and now dream tricks. Have you ever had a dream where you really were astounded at how involved your levels of ignorance and intelligence about your own dream were? To backtrack slightly there was a great video on Veritasium about how we experience time in moments rather than 'instant's. And they had a cute way of showing how your perception of what is in your mind currently happening actually is influenced by what happens directly afterwards. This of course being the most observable in dreams where you hear things happening in the real world, and you won't necessarily feel as though the sound is out of place as the dream will 'immediately' accommodate a source for the sound within the dream. Ok so back to the tricks, last night I had a dream where I heard an alarm going off, and then noticed a red spot on the ceiling. I thought that the spot was due to a leak, and there was 'already' some commotion so that seemed 'feasible', but 'then' I noticed that the spot was a red dust covering a fire alarm and that I was 'already' aware that there was some smoke or some type of gas leak that had set it off. I just found it funny that within my own dream I could misunderstand something that itself had a more logical explanation. Also the red dust was dispensed from the alarm and all over my dog and the ledge the dog was on, and the dog was throwing the excess dust off of the ledge with it's paws and it looked really funny. Another dream trick I remember recently was I was having a non-lucid dream and then began a dream analysis of the former portion of the dream. I thought this was funny that the second part of the dream could distinguish itself so much as to objectively analyze the beginning of the dream as being a dream, while still considering itself to be reality. ~ Ok, so back to what I was saying before. I wasn't going to make this case initially but I feel it is relevant enough to bring up. My idea for what would be a better model for progressives is already being modeled by anti-feminist pundits. The Sargons and Shoes and Blaire Whites and Tyler Prestons while I have different conclusions than them, they all provide much smarter content than progressive news outlets. They provide reasoning, they are more likable, they make content that speaks to people who don't necessarily agree, and have shown an openness to conversation with those who disagree. These people all have less money than MTV or TYT Network but have been able to write more compelling scripts for their points of view that in my mind aren't even sound. At times these channels don't seem much different from progressives but they have at least earnestly given the other side credit where credit is due which is something I have never seen progressive news do without immediately reinforcing that they despise who they had just credited. Again, this is no surprise as the progressive movement is not interested in fleshing out its own ideas and conveying them uncondescendingly. But I don't know if this strategy will in the long run benefit the movement. Edit: Thom Hartmann is cool